What Are You Playing?

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
What's so good about the game in your opinion? I know little about it so try to keep it spoiler free please :griffnotevil:

It's a short but dense romp through time. Balances drama with humor very well. The music is fantastic and memorable. Tons of endings to give you something extra to do once you're done. And it's from basically a dream team of developers from both Square and Enix when both of those companies were operating on all cylinders.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I finished Mega Man X this weekend (my wife wasn't feeling well, so I played A LOT of it). I'd rank it up there with MM2 and MM3. I've heard some say that it's the best Mega Man game, but I think I liked MM2 more. Regardless, it was awesome and I can't wait to play the next few SNES Mega Man games.

Next up is Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3!
 
Last edited:
Chrono Trigger lives up to it's name. The DS one is the way to go if you don't have some kinda multi-top loader that's popular these days. I want to additionally point out the game was innovative gameplay wise. The combat mechanics are amazing, as you can do combination attacks that include up to three people. Its addicting to shuffle your characters around to see what magic attacks you can come up with. They are like finding a summon in a final fantasy game kinda, as they are very satisfying. The game has a amazing score. (The main theme is my ring tone.) For what it is, the graphics are amazing as well. You may find some pretty amazing moments in it.
 
The combat mechanics are amazing, as you can do combination attacks that include up to three people. Its addicting to shuffle your characters around to see what magic attacks you can come up with. They are like finding a summon in a final fantasy game kinda, as they are very satisfying.

If there's any slight criticism I could give to the combat is that for the most part you will have one or two really good spells that you can use to wipe the whole screen, especially for mid to late game encounters. I found myself using those spells almost exclusively because it was much faster and resource efficient. I wish I had more reasons to experiment with all the different techs other than for curiosity's sake.

Aside from that, I agree with you on every other account, as everyone here who's played it probably does, especially in regards to the music. It really pushed that SNES sound chip to its maximum potential.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
If there's any slight criticism I could give to the combat is that for the most part you will have one or two really good spells that you can use to wipe the whole screen, especially for mid to late game encounters. I found myself using those spells almost exclusively because it was much faster and resource efficient. I wish I had more reasons to experiment with all the different techs other than for curiosity's sake.

I find that to be the case with a lot of the Final Fantasy games, too.
 

Fancypantaloons

Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas.
After many years I replayed the original Halo, and now I'm playing for the first time Halo 2, on PC. A bit of Postal 2 and Insurgency, too.
 
I find that to be the case with a lot of the Final Fantasy games, too.

It's a common old school RPG problem, actually, and it's a shame Chrono Trigger suffers from it as well, because it really had something innovative going on with the combo techs and directional AoEs and I wish it made better use of it. Ideally, I would have liked the balance to be something more like: you use single target and small area attacks to deal the substantial damage and then use the ones that hit all enemies and do just enough damage to finish them off, for example. That way you'd have to plan each encounter a bit more and have it be less of a tedious button spamming process. You can still kinda do that, but there's not much reason to, because the all encompassing attacks are relatively cheap and usually kill everything in one shot.

Nonetheless, the game can still get pretty damn challenging, and a lot of the bosses have elusive mechanics, the final boss fight in particular. There's not too much that can be complained about. It's a great game, I liked it a lot.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I spent the morning playing this, a graphical enhancement mod for FF7 on PC that "uses AI" to drastically clean up those messy late '90s CG backgrounds. It's pretty incredible.


Here's the landing page for the project, along with instructions, if anyone is interested in pursuing it. Setup takes some time, but if you're up for an FF7 replay (not sure I am, but I wanted to see it), it's worth it.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
I may check out that FF7 HD makeover as well, though I know I won't get through it from numerous aborted attempts.

Anyway, still plugging along a bit every night in Sekiro: I thought I was proud of myself after expertly dispatching Genichiro Ashina on my umpteenth attempt, but I was even more pleased to take out the Guardian Ape on my second try, including his faster moveset at half life. I think I only had one gourd to experiment with at that point, but fortunately it was enough to form a winning strategy and then, absent healing, I made every hit count with offensive enhancers. Barely made it, but very satisfying.

So I did this in front of my one year old daughter, hey kids love monkeys, and after literally making Wolf jump up in down in victory for her, needless to say I was shocked and in disbelief when the fucker not only started moving again, but grabbed his head and that damn sword to use against me! This was like some Dark Souls meme come to life. I can't believe I pulled it off after that because I was pretty much ready to die on the spot.
 
Last edited:
So I did this in front of my one year old daughter, hey kids love monkeys, and after literally making Wolf jump up in down in victory for her, needless to say I was shocked and in disbelief when the fucker not only started moving again, but grabbed his head and that damn sword to use against me! This was like some Dark Souls meme come to life. I can't believe I pulled it off after that because I was pretty much ready to die on the spot.

Haha, yeah the Guardian Ape fight is one highlight of the game — it's classic FromSoftware tomfoolery. You can find copious reactions online from people, good thing yours didn't fall short either.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Haha, yeah the Guardian Ape fight is one highlight of the game — it's classic FromSoftware tomfoolery. You can find copious reactions online from people, good thing yours didn't fall short either.

This was a good youtube rabbit hole.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I beat Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 on Saturday and started playing Castlevania: Bloodlines on Sunday.

Wario Land might be one of my favorite platformers of all time. That game was so much damn fun, I can't wait to play the rest of them.

Castlevania: Bloodlines on the other hand is a great game with one major flaw: limited continues. I can't tell you how much I hate limited continues. They're just an artificial way to lengthen a game, mainly due to the American rental market in the 80s and 90s. I can't recall a single Castlevania game I've played before this that had limited continues, and it really limits my enjoyment of an otherwise great game.

The other problem is the difficulty. For some reason, the normal difficulty in Japan is the easy difficulty in America. I tried playing the American version on normal, but it's just too damn hard for a first-time run. I'm giving easy a try to see if I can get through the game that way, but we'll see.

There's a cheat code for unlimited continues, but you have to enter a cheat code for nine lives beforehand, and that's way too cheap for me.

All that being said, the game itself is great. The graphics are some of the best I've seen on the Sega Genesis, and the gameplay is classic Castlevania goodness.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Wario Land might be one of my favorite platformers of all time. That game was so much damn fun, I can't wait to play the rest of them.

Same. I got into the GameBoy very late in its life, and this + Link's Awakening were the first titles I picked up. So jumping straight into WarioLand, my thought was: "Wow these GameBoy platformers aren't fucking around! This is SNES-level stuff!" In truth, that game was just a milestone that fully takes advantage of everything the GB had to offer. Incredible game.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Same. I got into the GameBoy very late in its life, and this + Link's Awakening were the first titles I picked up. So jumping straight into WarioLand, my thought was: "Wow these GameBoy platformers aren't fucking around! This is SNES-level stuff!" In truth, that game was just a milestone that fully takes advantage of everything the GB had to offer. Incredible game.

Man, Wario Land and Link’s Awakening! You nailed it in terms of Game Boy games right out the gate. That’s awesome.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Yeah and then I got Metroid 2! :ganishka:

:ganishka:

Eh, it wasn’t terrible, but yeah... not on the same level as Link’s Awakening or Wario Land.

You want terrible, check out Home Alone 2. I somehow managed to beat that piece of shit out of sheer spite when I was a kid. *shudder*

Well, I couldn't sleep tonight, so I ended up playing the crap out of Castlevania: Bloodlines, and finishing it on Easy (easy my butt...). I don't feel like taking it on under Normal just yet, so I'm moving on to Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger!
 
Last edited:

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Picked Bloodborne back up. Got Father Gascoigne down to beast form on first try, said aloud: "you ain't shit." And 10 deaths later, goodnight folks!
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Picked Bloodborne back up. Got Father Gascoigne down to beast form on first try, said aloud: "you ain't shit." And 10 deaths later, goodnight folks!

Sounds like you're still sharp to get the good Father to show his true colors right away. But yeah, I recall numerous infuriating close calls against his beastly self before putting him down (especially on BL4 even though you wouldn't think it'd make much difference at that point). My advice for his beast form, and a lesson for the rest of the game: don't try to back out, he'll catch you that way, go at him instead. You're the hunter. =)
 
Picked Bloodborne back up. Got Father Gascoigne down to beast form on first try, said aloud: "you ain't shit." And 10 deaths later, goodnight folks!
Sounds like you're still sharp to get the good Father to show his true colors right away. But yeah, I recall numerous infuriating close calls against his beastly self before putting him down (especially on BL4 even though you wouldn't think it'd make much difference at that point). My advice for his beast form, and a lesson for the rest of the game: don't try to back out, he'll catch you that way, go at him instead. You're the hunter. =)
And when all else fails, just ask yourself: "What would Beavis do?"

Heh heh heh, fire! Fire! Heh heh heh heh!
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
And when all else fails, just ask yourself: "What would Beavis do?"

Heh heh heh, fire! Fire! Heh heh heh heh!

I actually tried fire in the first fight. When he turned, I immediately thought about Molotov Cocktails but it didn't seem to have a significant effect.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
I actually tried fire in the first fight. When he turned, I immediately thought about Molotov Cocktails but it didn't seem to have a significant effect.

If it's a glancing blow, it's a no go, and he's very dodgey as you know. A direct hit should wreck his shit, but you have to be on it. I remember going through a lot of these trying to nail him and the cleric beast, and oil helps, but that's another thing you have to hit him with while keeping safe. You have anything to light up your weapon? That's always fun.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
If it's a glancing blow, it's a no go, and he's very dodgey as you know. A direct hit should wreck his shit, but you have to be on it. I remember going through a lot of these trying to nail him and the cleric beast, and oil helps, but that's another thing you have to hit him with while keeping safe. You have anything to light up your weapon? That's always fun.

Got 'im! I took your advice and stopped playing peekaboo around the graves and instead just tore his ass apart offensively. Felt good. And the Molotovs definitely ruined his night. After he went beast, I just doused him over and over. Poor guy... Good fight.

I think it took me this long in the game to get a good feel for the range and timing of my own attacks (I'm using the cleaver). It still feels a bit wonky to me, how open you feel after each strike. But getting used to it.
 
Got 'im! I took your advice and stopped playing peekaboo around the graves and instead just tore his ass apart offensively. Felt good. And the Molotovs definitely ruined his night. After he went beast, I just doused him over and over. Poor guy... Good fight.

I think it took me this long in the game to get a good feel for the range and timing of my own attacks (I'm using the cleaver). It still feels a bit wonky to me, how open you feel after each strike. But getting used to it.

Congrats! I used the cleaver for my first playthrough of Bloodborne as well. Nothing better than downing Daddy G. The eldritch world's your oyster now!
 
Top Bottom